good mornign Vietnam!!!

After enduring a painful bus journey in which Dan had to put up with some old Cambodians bum stuck right in his face the whole way and i had taken some advice from Ed to take some tablets to stop a vomiting spell i had, which made me so fidgety and restless that there was not a hope in hell of falling to sleep and my legs were in a constant twitch. We made it to Siam reap 7 hours later, all a little flustered but ready to see some temples! we found a really good hotel with two double beds, an on suit and a TV for only $6 so that was.......$3 per couple (bargain!) i think we spent our first night watching tele and laughing at rubbish American film called "direct contact?" i don't recommend it!

The next morning it was up and out early for some serious temple tours! angkor wat is so amazing it looks like old Aztec ruins but about 30 times the size! We went to big temples, little temples, 200 year old temples, and 600 year old temples, temples with trees growing from them.......... and so on. By the end we were templed out and ready for some beers! The town in Siam reap is great! and the beer only cost 13p so we had lots to compensate. At about 1 o'clock we found ourselves boogying in some seedy nightclub surrounded by Cambodians watching and mimicking our stupid dancing to the YMCA and other tasteful tunes including the spice girls etc.......

We spent the next day feeling sorry for ourselves hung over drinking coffee and mooching round markets, i bought the most adorable antique wooden elephant puppet which i am currently trying my hardest not to break in my tightly compact back pack. Then we said our good byes to Claire and Ed who had decided to stay for a week or so to do some volunteer work. We, on the other hand were off to Vietnam!!!

We....(i) decided it was a good plan to go by public transport to the nearest border crossing rather then the usual tourist route going back through Phnom Penn on a 12 hour long bus. Our plan was flawless until we got to the crossing and it became obvious that they had never dealt with a foreign passport and kept us waiting for ages till they figured it out! Then when on the other side there were no busses only one lonely man offering us a ride to the nearest town for $25!!!! We had no choice as this was all there was apart from walking. When at the bus station it took 6 changes of busses (where nobody spoke a word of English and we only knew 2 words hello and thank you) finally we made it to Saigon which was buzzing with thousands of motor bikes... literally coating the streets and the pavements. Luckily we got off the bus in the right place despite being completely oblivious and overwhelmed by it all. We found a guest house and explored the streets.

Saigon is a great place (really busy) but there is a good atmosphere about it and we were able to spend hours window shopping, eating weird and wonderful foods and wondering around markets and museums. after a couple of days we booked an open ticket where you basically have a month to get up to Hanoi with as many stops and as much time as you like, our first stop was nha trang which is nice but it has been rainy and cloudy since we got here and with it being a beach side city there isn't much to do. Tonight we leave for Hoian then Hue then Hanoi and Haylong bay before leaving for Singapore on the 27th. 

change of plan

So our plan was to sit back, relax and pamper in the south of Thailand for a month before finding jobs and working our socks off in oz.

We made a snap decision and change of plan to go to Cambodia and Vietnam instead.....what can i say we love this traveling millarky! so here we are after a immense 24 + hour straight journey on a bus-boat-bus from KO Tao all the way to Sihnoukeville in Cambodia! its really authentically Asian here which is a big change from the commercial south Thailand where you have anything and everything ready at your hotel.

me Dan ed and Claire were staying in dirt cheap guest house jobbies again, just the way i like it! after a couple of a booze ups and a visit to a crazy snake farm, we decided to push on to Rabbit island.

It was another short 6 hour bus to the ferry (a little wooden boat with a motorbike engine) when we reached our destination it was like heaven! nothing but jungle, sand and a couple of bamboo huts! we heard that you had to catch and cook your own food. so we were pleasantly surprised when we saw a food hut which served fresh crab and fish. the island was so perfect, so chilled and best of all nearly deserted! we swam around for a while and a big school group made there way over by boat and started swimming with us. The children were between 6-12 and they were so much fun! we were all playing games, splashing around, taking under water photos and generally looking after these poor kids for the afternoon. I really want to do some volunteer work even more now as this was a little taster of how fun and enthusiastic these kids are!

In the evening we sat round, ate whole crab and drank 2 bottles of rum between us! Dan disappeared off to the sea for 5 mins then came back with something glowing on his hand....... it was glowing plankton which is really rare and only happens at certain times of month when the weather is just right! the 4 of us ran down to the sea and the waves were glowing. I remembered the scene off the beach and decided to go for a swim! it was the most beautiful thing i have ever seen in my entire life!!! it was like the water was alive! every time you move the twinkling lights shine... we all swam around for hours trying different things like standing still then splashing as much as you can, or swimming underwater and seeing if you could track the movements. the next morning we all felt like it was a dream.... we dint want to leave but phenom penh was beckoning!

this must be underwater love...

After the Christmas drinks, followed by a day of hangover fun on boxing day, we had the following day to get acquainted with scuba diving! We met our group of Linda, Ally, Sweaty (Kris) and Ted, and our well sound instructor called Guy, had a rather tedious afternoon of watching very cheesy diving videos, a bit of dive theory, and getting to know what we would be expecting. This was followed by a could of drinks with our team, then a fairly early night considering we had to be back up at 8 for more video watching and our exam!

We sat through the cheesy videos again, did some last minute revision, and sat the exam. Roz did a sterling job with 88% but i was teachers pet with 100%!! Get in! After this we got to go diving for the first time! Even if it was in a swimming pool... We practiced assembling equipment, breathing underwater, mask clearing, and regulator removal and finding. It is amazing how hungry this can make you, so we heading down the road to a Korean barbecue, which basically consists of all you can eat meat and noodles, and a mini barbie on the table in front of you and you just keep on cooking as much as you want! It was genius!! So with a belly full of meat we rolled down the hill and had another early night, as next day we had to be up a 7am!!

Day 3 of scuba training was into the sea! So after a quick briefing we got on the boat and headed for our first dive site, called twin peaks. We were heading down to 12m today and going through more practicing of skills underwater including buoyancy control, mask clearing, fin pivots and equalizing the pressure in our ears. After that we went for a quick swim around the coral, saw loads of fish and even a moray eel! Another dive in the afternoon was much the same, but more swimming and fish spotting! Same same again in the evening with food and sleep!!

The final day of diving was just a half day, with 2 more dives but this time down to 18m... it's weird but it feels a lot deeper than that when you look up and see people way up over head swimming above you! We had a camera man with us today so he would film us playing around underwater, practicing our final manouvers and swimming with fish! We saw blue spotted stingray, boxfish, barracuda and loads of others! That night we watched our video and was going to buy one but for 50 quid we could afford, we decided to buy one between the group and copy it!! So that was it, we are now qualified divers!!

The next day was new years, so we had a well deserved lie in, met up with Clare and Ed who we met in Chiang Mae, and headed over to Koh pha ngan for the full moon party!! The island was absolutely heaving with partiers, but after fighting our way through the crowds we bought the obligatory glow paint and started adorning our faces! You can see the photos we took on flickr (link from this page top left) and you'll see how messy we got! After earning a couple of beers painting randoms, we headed to the beach for the carnage, and managed to avoid the special buckets (laced with magic mushrooms!!) and danced like loons until the countdown began! Fireworks were explodign everywhere and it really was a sight to behold! We carried on partying for a couple more hours then somehow managed to find a quiet spot for a quick nap, before the ferry took us back to Koh Tao. And rest...! After a shower of course!

After new years, more beaching, and we have now decided to not bother with the rest of the Thai islands, cus Koh Tao was so amazing and have opted to head back north and spent our next month through Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam!! And so right now we are waiting for our night boat back to the mainland and into another adventure!!

christmas

So after waiting for a couple of hours, we finally got checked in to

our room. It was a nice little hut but we were expecting something a

little more fancy-schmantzy considering how much we had paid... Roz

decided to go and have a word with the management and got us a serious

upgrade! After unpacking and a well needed shower we signed up for our

scuba course, but I needed to get a checkup from the doc so we headed

into town. After being certified (sane) by dr dive, we went for a swim

in what can only be described as crystal clear water! You can still

see your feet when you're up to your neck! As it was Xmas eve, we

thought we'd go take a look round the shops for presents, but

everything in the shop was same same... So we spent our money on a

couple of beers and sat out by the pool!

After tea, we wandered around town for a couple more drinks, watched

some fireworks, and headed to bed. It had been a looooong day!

Christmas day! Neither of us could believe it was here already,

doesn't seem like 2 minutes since we first landed in India when

Christmas was miles off! We wanted xmas dinner but after seeing the

prices we decided against it! We heard rumours that a bar down the

beach was serving turkey, stuffing and cranberry sarnies so raced down

there to get our fix! After a belly full of turkey and a few beers,

and hours sunbathing and swimming, we did the obligatory family phone

calls then got showered and headed back out to finish of the night

properly! We eventually ran out of money so stumbled home singing Xmas

songs, and home alone was on tv! Perfect Christmas day!

trip to ko tao

Another long day of travel before we reached the shore of chumphon, (a

sleepy little town which revolves around sending forangs off to ko

Tao.) we got onto our boat which was set to sail throughout the night

and reach the island at 5am. As we got on the boat it felt like more

of a cargo boat then anything else, we were all crammed into a little

room with bunk beds and pillows on the floor. It was all very cosey

but a bed nonetheless!!!

We met some weird, crazy pot heads from England. I am sure that the guy had fake dread locks which made him even more pathitic! When the boat set off we all went to the top of

the boat for a few drinks and some stat gazing. There was litterally

everything on this boat, mopeds, crates of water, metal tables stacked

up so high and not tied to anything and great big tanks of gasoline.

We only had about 1m2 to sit, when the boat reached the open ocean, it

all got extremely rocky and we all got very sick. Some were sick over

the side and we all went to bed sharpish! I woke up at about 3 with a

Thai man snoring in my ear who had rolled onto my bed and too drunk to

notice. All in all it wasn't the romantic boat trip we had in mind but

hey this is Thailand, anything can happen.

When we reached dry land we found our lux apartment for our special

Christmas treat and watched the sun rise on our lovely little island.

a bridge over the river buffalo..?

We left bangkok, where the budget was totally blown outta the water, and heading to Kanchanaburi for some final sight seeing before we head for the beaches. We got to the bus station (which was more like an airport) and got a cheap bus for a quid each, had a ham and cheese toastie.. because we could! and settled in for the 3 hours ride. we got chatting to an american girl who was a teacher in korea, and was taking a break in thailand. when we got to the town, we took a recommendation to head for the jolly frog guest house, which was amazing!! it's got a well nice garden, overlooking the kwai river, hammocks swinging in the breeze, and a bed big enough to swing 2 cats on it! and all for 3 quid a night.. where do i sign?! we got settled in and headed to the bar for chang time (cheap thai beer) and some food, then did an evening walk down to the bridge over the river kwai. taking care not to pronounce the name wrong

after that we met up with carleen again, and hit a few bars in town, then got well sozzled on sangsong and coke, drank gracefully using half a cut updrink bottle as glasses! classy...

morning came way too soon, and the usually haze of the night before soon desended.. snagsong is baaad stuff.. we know this already but yet we keep drinking it!! after a good greasy breakfast we went round the kwai museum, which was surprisingly well organised and quite interesting.. then walked back down to the bridge for sunset photos! it's a big tourist attraction so trying to get some decent photos was hard work, but when the train came across you had about 10 seconds to get a clear photo before the bridge filled up again! the best thing we saw though, was a rude-boy monk with a mobile, ipod, massive slr camera and smoking a fag!! i may have just lost some faith in these guys..!

we got ice cream and headed back to the guest house.. only to realise that all our money had falled out of roz's bag and now we had nothing left! we retraced our steps for about a mile but of course the money was long gone.. just hope it was picked up by someone who needed it and not a tourist!

waterfalls tomorrow, maybe hire a moped again.. easy rider!

ps rock on rage!! best christmas number one ever!!

boozy bangkok

We landed from our white water thrills at Mai Hong Son (a cosy little village that hosts one of the most spectacular temples we have ever seen on the side of the lake.) It lights up at night and is the main hot spot to send your wishes off with lanterns. We enjoyed our tranquil stay a lot but there is only so much relaxing to be done and since we had a 38 hour trip to our xmas destination we thought we had better break it up gradually moving down.

We endured a 15 hour local bus ride back across the mountains and round the 1000 bends and corners, then we jumped straight on a bus to sukhothai (another 6 hours) tired and hungry we reached our destination late at night and had the usual street food sat on plastic chairs on top of a gutter.......what can i say, its the cheapest! we got up the next day and headed straight to the old city. sukhothai used to be the capital of Thailand and still has the ancient temples with many many buddhas! we learned about buddhism at the museum then went snap happy with our cameras.

The next day, we headed back for Bangkok for some ultra speed full frontal fun!..... cant remember much of the first night until being very sick in our stinky hostel toilet!.....nice......day two we decided to slow it down and go for a beer and to the cinema. we are off out again tonight after a lovely day of looking round many many markets some were floating and others weren't.

Our plan is to go to kanchanburi tomorrow where we plan to visit the bridge over the river kwai (or river quare as the Thais pronounce it as quai means buffalo and they find it very funny if you say this to them.)

rafting to Mai Hong Son

After a couple more nights of Sangsong fun we began to feel like an episode of shameless so decided we needed to get out of there! We wanted to get to Mai Hong Son and the nicest way was to go via white water rafting! Two full days of rafting, waterfalls, mud baths, caving, jumping off rocks and camp fire fun!!! Can it get any better?

We set off on our raft after a grueling hour and a half journey across the mountains where I literally felt the urge to regurgitate breakfast! We would be spending the next two days with a couple called Jeff and Vic (a nice pair from Leeds) and our pro rafter guide called V!

For the first day we just drifted down stream watching the jungle pass us and getting to know each other better. It was really relaxing but there was no white water in sight! We passed a hollow tree and V pointed out a python that lived inside. It was huge! We stopped at some waterfalls and had a dip. Then we pressed on to camp. It was a really urm…… authentic? Camp we were literally sleeping under the stars in a mosquito net on a mat. Very stupidly, the conversation before bed was mainly about snakes, spiders and other creepy crawlies so I lay awake for the majority of the night shivering in my boots at everything that made a noise. We were woken up in the middle of the night by a man with a flash light walking through our camp with a shot gun! I thought we were set up and we were all gonna be mugged and killed out here! But it turned out that one of the villagers had gone out hunting a few hours before, and brought back his catch for our breakfast!!! Talk about hospitality. The next morning we were woken by a local 5 year old running around the camp screaming, he was making a fire, playing with his pet chicken on a string, and firing his catapult at a plastic bottle. He was a really cute kid called “Dow” or star (which was the name given to me by woody on our trek!) he picked up English very well! We taught him hello, cool dude, ants! And elephants go bruuuuuuugh! He also already knew 1,2,3,4,5. He was fascinated by our camera and liked to see the pictures of the Taj. We also made some videos of him doing his best elephant impression and he stared in amazement! “is that really me?” we went for a short trek into the jungle to see the tiger cave then set off down river to the hot springs. They were amazing, the water was at least 60 degrees and too hot to bathe in! The mud surrounding is enriched with natural goodness so we were told to cover ourselves! It made our skin real soft! We washed off just in time for a big group of 4 other boats filled with brits and Thais. They joined us for back up in the rapids I suppose… We all set off after having some lunch; our boat was at the back but soon made it to the front just in time for a massive rapid which nearly turned the boat over! Some others fell in but we all managed to stay in our boat, then another then another, people behind us were dropping like flies! It was great fun and we proved that we were the stronger, faster team!

i love pai!

We recovered from our trek then set off for Chang Doa, an hour and a half north of Chaing Mai. in complete contrast to the bustling, busy streets of happening Chaing Mai, Chang Dao is a little community embedded into a magnificent lime stone cliff where you can explore vast caves full of shrines and carved buddas. It was really beautiful and thanks to our guide I know know how to say mind your head in tai!

We rocked up as usual completely clueless with nowhere to stay and not a clue where to start, after discovering that all of the guest houses were full (a whole 3 of them) we settled for a really budget smashing luxury hut on a complex so mind blowingly beautiful we felt like we were on our honey moon. In fairness the room only cost 20 pounds but nonetheless, this was the most that we had spent. We decided to only stay for one night to justify it. We spent the evening snug round an open fire chatting to a couple on their holiday. I think they pittied us when we started talking about all our rough experiences and tight budgets so they insisted on buying us a bottle of wine. They were very sweet and we all sat round for what felt like forever but when we looked it was only like…. 12:00 everything calms down so early out in the middle of nowhere!

The next morning, we packed up, received our free bottled water, showergel, shampoo, sewing kit, detergent, shower cap, and little home made jammy dodgers and left luxury behind! We jumped on a bus which dropped us in a dodgy little town who odviously hadnt seen many tourists and was a mix of tai and hill tribe folk. We walked aimlessly down the dusty road and found some people who appeared top be waiting for a lift to Pai (our next destination) we set up camp and sat by the side of the road for a wile until a man in a mini bus came. I expected a bus so was supprised when all of the twons people hopped on, we soon found out why it was a mini van…… someboy told me that there were 1000 corners on the mountain route to Pai and I would say that this was accurate! I was litterally planing my escape route to be sick!

3 hours later we made it to Pai in one piece. It’s a great little place, really good, happy atmosphere, it has the coolest little bars dotted around, we met a couple who got us drinking Sansung and coke. We would basically walk into a bar, buy a bottle for 2 pound, get a bottle of coke and your away. We sat round the fire (again)  getting nicely toasted and drunk!!! We both woke up this morning with booming hang overs!

hill tribe treck

When we got to chaing mai, we found it very difficult to keep our money in our pockets! Everything is just spend spend! On the second day Dan did a cooking course which sounded great! And also means lots of lovely Thai curries for me when we start to cook for ourselves again!

We met two really nice people in our hostel called Claire and Ed who were doing a 3 day hill tribe trek the next day so we decided to tag along, we spent that evening getting to know them, shopping for supplies and eating pancakes of course! Claire and Ed had been traveling in India and Nepal and had done a 12 day trek to base camp on Everest, as you can imagine I was nervous about my abilities!

The next day we set off and picked up our fellow trekkers there was 11 of us. Me Dan, Claire, Ed, Emily, Jamie-Lee, Mat, Rodney, Jane, Justin, Anton and of course our legend of a tour guide......Woody! We all got along very well cramped into the back of a little taxi! We stopped at a market on the way to the jungle to get supplies and necessities like pretty fabric water containers! Some of us fell for it but me and Dan stayed strong and resisted the urge!

We arrived at an elephant camp at around mid day and enjoyed our first part of the trip, an hour long elephant ride across steep, muddy terrain. Then we went on on foot up the mountain which in all honesty was the hardest thing I have done! Everyone was so fit and fast and left me behind, I really thought that I would give up but Dan kept me going. When we got to the top everybody was really supportive and impressed when they found out about my hip!

We were going to be sleeping at the red Laho tribe village, Woody taught us to say “a boy jah” for hello and thank you, the tribe migrated from Burma and don’t have Thailand visas so don’t really belong anywhere. They used to survive by selling opium but the king came and cut down all their crops so the result to giving travelers massages and selling hand made trinkets. It seems like a nice way of life and the village is well made. Our hut was just to the side of the village and we could see the opposing black laho tribe across the other side of the mountain. A few of us went to see the sun set which was so beautiful (see the photos) while Woody cooked dinner by candle light. He is a great cook and kept us all well fed!

We spent the evening sat round the fire playing games and solving Woody’s endless magic tricks and puzzles. One of the tribe men joined us but didn’t say a word just sat there smoking opium with a big smile on his face!

The next day it was all down hill which was better then up hill but still challenging and everyone’s legs hurt by the end of it. We went to two beautiful waterfalls for a swim and met a cute little tribal girl who was fascinated by our digital cameras and sunglasses. It was a real reality check. On the last stretch it got really slippery and me, Anton and Woody fell in the river. We then trekked down to our camp which was looked after by two tribe women who didn’t speak a word the whole time but cooked us dinner, served us drinks and snacks and kept the fire going all night. We all sat round and go very drunk telling jokes, drinking games and listening to Rodney’s legendary stories. It was a really great night!

After, not much sleep we got up and set off for the rafting centre which was just down the valley a little way. We walked out of the dense jungle into an opening where there were cows grazing and the tallest trees I had ever seen! We spent about an hour white water rafting which was so much fun but not too hard going so we all decided to jump out and float for a bit. We got back in just in time for a real level 3 experience! After this the river settled and we were tolled to get onto bamboo rafts and float the rest of the way. We all we stood balancing on these 5 men rafts trying not to fall off and we got the most legendary photo of Dan, who had just fallen in pulling on the back of the boat so that it sank and we all fell down.!

That was the end of our trip but we are all staying in touch and some of us are even meeting up for New Years Eve….. Can’t wait!